Operating mechanism for sliding closure for railway car hoppers



March 20, 1956 G. B. DOREY OPERATING MECHANISM FOR SLIDING CLOSURE FOR RAILWAY CAR HOPPERS 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 4 1951 March 20, 1956 Filed April 4, 1951 G. B. DOREY 2,738,740 OPERATING MECHANISM FOR SLIDING CLOSURE FOR RAILWAY CAR HOPPERS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

March 20, 1956 G. B. DOREY 2,738,740

OPERATING MECHANISM FOR SLIDING CLOSURE FOR RAILWAY CAR HOPPERS Filed April 4, 1951 s Sheets-Sheet s United States Patent OPERATING MECHANISM FOR SLIDING CLOSURE FOR RAILWAY CAR norrnus ieorge B. Dorey, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, assignor to Enterprise Railway Equipment Company, Chicago, 11]., a corporation of Illinois Application April 4, 1951, Serial No. 219,189 V 2 Claims. (Cl. 105-305) an improvementover the construction shown in copending application Serial No. 150,662, filed March 20, 1950, now Patent 2,690,137, issued September 28,-1954 and assigned to the assignee of this application. o

Ihe objects of the invention among others arez -To provide an improved spacing means for retaining geared pinions in a definite position in relation to the side walls of a discharge outlet, thereby dispensing with the necessity of piercing the shaft; andto provide pinions having sleeve portions so related to a spacing element that they will in one position engage with a certain section of a toothed rack on the sliding gate and will, when reversed to another position, engage with another section'ofthe toothed rack on the sliding gate. a

This-irnproved mechanism is especially desirablefor use in connection with the sliding gates of discharge out- Ietsof railway hopper cars such as are employed in-handling cement, lime and similar compacting materialwhich, when in transit, has a tendency to pack and requires the exertion of great force for moving the closure in an opening direction and wherein the wear on the interengaging rack and pinion teeth is generally in the opening direction.

For a more complete comprehension of this invention reference may be had to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the frame and gate assembly with one of the pinion gears, the shaft and associated spacer indicated thereon, a portion of the gate being broken away to show more clearly the parts identified with this invention;

Figure 2 is a bottom plan view, on a reduced scale, of the closure or gate shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a vertical sectional longitudinal view on the structure shown in Figure 1 and taken on a line 3-3 thereof;

Figure 4 is a vertical end elevational view of the assembly shown in Figure 1 as viewed from right to left;

Figure 5 is a vertical sectional view taken on a line 5--5 of Figure 1;

Figure 6 is a view similar to Figure 5 except that the pinions are shown in reversed positions;

Figure 7 is a detached vertical longitudinal view of the spacer;

Figure 8 is a vertical end view of Figure 7 as seen from right to left;

Figure 9 is a detached vertical longitudinal view of one of the toothed pinions; and

Figure 10 is a vertical end view of the pinion shown in Figure 9 as viewed from right to left.

In the drawings the invention is shown as embodied in an outlet assembly of a load containing hopper, such 2,738,740 Patented Mar. 20, 1956 as is employed for the discharge opening of a railway car hopper; The load containing hopper is indicated generally in Figures 3 and 6 byside walls 10 and 11' which meet with end sloping walls 12and13; Figure 3, to form a four-sided hopper 14 having afour-sided discharge opening-15.

Enclosing the lower portion ofthe four sides of the hopper 14 is a unitary frame 16 having a sliding gate 17, Figure 2, carried thereby which is provided on it'sunderside with rack-teeth'ls. Cooperating with the rack teeth 18 of the gate 17 are pinions 19, Figures 4, 9 and 10, which are non-rotatably mounted onan operating shaft 20. "The shaft 20 is journalled on the frame 16 and is provided at one end with a barreceivingoperating head 21. At the opposite end the shaft 20 is fitted with a combined bearing andstop member 22. -The head 21 is maintained against lengthwise"movement by a rivet 23 and 'the bearing andstop member 22 is likewise maintained againstlengthwise movement relative to the shaft by a headless pin 24. The shaft 20 is thus maintained against axial movement in one direction by the head 21 and against movement in-the opposite direction by the stop member 22.

iThe frame 16 in its preferred form includes an upper wall portion lyingabove the gate 17 and formed with walls 25,26, 27- and 28 which-overlie the respective walls 10, 11,12 and 13 of the hopper 14. The frame 16, below the gate 17, is formed with a four sided chute-like portion of appreciable depth'including side walls 29 and 30 which arespa ced inwardly'from the adjacent upper walls 25 and 26 a sufiicient distance to provide fiat runway surfaces' 31 at eachside of the frame 16 on which the gate 17 is adapted to have lengthwise sliding movement.

The four walls of the chute are completed by transverse ;walls 32 and 33', Figure'3, which extend between the respective side walls 29 and 30. The end wall 32 is 'spaced from the upper wall 27 to provide an end ledge 34 disposed on a level corresponding to the level of the side runway surfaces 3131'and forms therewith a three sided supporting surface for the gate 17. The end wall 33 extends transversely below the gate 17 and is provided at its upper margin with a flat horizontal wall 35. At the lower portion of the frame 16 there is a laterally outwardly extending structure which projects from the lower margin of the chute walls 29, 30, 32 and 33. This structure on two adjacent sides is in the form of a flange indicated at 36 and on the other two adjacent sides, as indicated at 37 and 38 in Figure 3, is in the form of channel sections presenting an inwardly facing groove 39. The flange 36 and the groove 39 are for the purpose of accommodating a removable extension chute (not shown). The flange 36 and channel sections 37 and 38 operate to strengthen the four sides of the frame 16. The outstanding section 37 extends in parallelism with the upper transversely disposed wall 35 and in combination with this wall and the wall 33 forms a substantially channelshaped beam member. Projecting forwardly beyond the beam member, as formed by walls 33, 35 and 37 and disposed at each side of the frame are vertical side wall extensions 40 which are provided with bearing portions 41 presenting an annular bearing for rotatably supporting the operating shaft 20.

Confined between the inner faces 42, Figure 5, of the walls 40 are the pinion gears 19 and interposed between them is a spacer 43, Figures 7 and 8, having a rectangularly shaped opening 43' to receive the shaft 20. The pinion gears 19 are slidably mounted on the shaft 20 and nonrotatably related thereto since each is formed with a central rectangularly shaped opening 44, Figure 10, corresponding substantially in shape and size to the shaft 20. The pinions 19 are formed with gear teeth portion 45 which mesh with the rack teeth 18 of the gate 17. Adjacent each side of the toothed portion 45 there are provided integrally formed elongated hub sections 46 and 47, one of said sections as indicated at 47 being of greater length than the other section 46 and preferably having an extent of length at least equal to thecorhbined length of the short section 46 and the geared portion 45. The pair of pinion gears 19 and the interposed spacer 43 completely fill the space intermediate the side walls 40 and the pinion gears 19 are thus maintained against inward axial movement by the spacer 43 which is threaded on the shaft 20 and maintained against outward axial movement by the side walls 40.

It will be noted that the rack teeth 18 of the gate are extended lengthwise of the shaft for a considerable distance to each side of the gear teeth 45 and consequently the pinions 19 may be positioned either as shown in Figure 5 or alternately as shown in Figure 6 by turning them end to end.

Assuming the pinions 19 are placed as in Figure 5, with a newly constructed structure, engagement is effected between the rack teeth 18 and the gear teeth 45 with the engagement concentrated adjacent the side walls 40. It will be appreciated that the main wearing surfaces will generally be as indicated at 48, Figure 3, and in the direction of opening movement of the gate 17. Upon the occurrence of excessive wear at 48 the life of the rack teeth 18 may be extended by reversing the pinions 19 to the positions shown in Figure 6 thereby presenting a section of unworn rack teeth 18 for engagement with well preserved or unworn faces 49 of the gear teeth 45.

It will thus be appreciated that the improvement provides the advantages of ease of installation combined with an ever ready source of replacements for wearing parts resulting in longer life of the parts making up the original installation.

What is claimed as new is:

1. In a mechanism for operating a sliding gate for closing an opening in a load containing hopper having walls at the sides of said gate the improvement comprising, in combination, rack means on said gate, a pair of pinions having central non-circular openings therethrough engaging said rack means, a shaft adapted to be rotat' ably mounted on said side walls and having a non-circular cross-section corresponding to said openings in said pinions and axially slidably and non-rotatably mounting the same thereon, each pinion being endwise reversible on said shaft and including a geared section for engaging said rack means and elongated hub sections on each side of the geared section of diflerent lengths, said pinions being maintained against outward axial movement along said shaft by said walls, and a spacer carried by said shaft and interposed between said pinions for limiting inward axial movement thereof, said rack means extending beyond the geared section of each of said pinions sufficiently so that endwise reversal of said pinions will place the geared sections thereof in engagement with different sections of said rack means.

2. In a mechanism for operating a sliding gate for closing an opening in a load containing hopper the improvement comprising, in combination, rack teeth on said gate, a shaft adapted to be rotatably mounted on said hopper underneath said gate, and a pair of spaced apart pinions each having a geared section for engaging said rack teeth and elongated hub sections on each side of the geared section of different lengths non-rotatably and reversibly mounted on said shaft engaging said rack teeth, said rack teeth being sufiiciently longer than said pinions so that when said pinions are reversed, and consequently said geared sections are spaced differently on said shaft, different surfaces of the teeth of said pinions engage differei'it surfaces of said rack teeth.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 79,605 Sibley July 7, 1868 1,178,456 Pocock Apr. 4, 1916 1,384,382 Cardullo July 12, 1921 1,728,279 Ramsay Sept. 17, 1929 2,142,236 Campbell Jan. 3, 1939 2,222,280 Batho Nov. 19, 1940 2,293,200 Foote Aug. 18, 1942 2,340,519 Dorey Feb. 1, 1944 

